NOBODY KNOWS THIS GUY?

On April 13, 2010, I wrote a blog, “As The Alderman Like It,” about the watered-down ordinance that would create the office of a City Council Inspector General with the power to investigate Aldermen and their employees. 

The current Chicago Inspector General (IG)  is banned by ordinance to investigate Aldermen, so a new office had to be created. Section 2-56-050 of the ordinance  that established the office of the city’s Inspector General outlines the duties and jurisdiction of the IG as:

BROAD JURISDICTION:

Section 2-56-050 — Conduct of City officers, employees and other entities
Provides jurisdiction over all City officials, employees, those doing business with the city and those seeking city certification. Excludes the City Council and staff, and City Council Committees and staff

I wrote then, “To paraphrase the melancholy  Jacques in his monologue (Act II, Scene VII) in William Shakespeare’s play, As You Like It, ‘All of Chicago is a stage, and all the men and women merely players….’  Chicago citizens are merely puppets with our strings being manipulated by the Aldermen who watch us wiggle while we bobble up and down at their beck and call.”

I also pointed out that this new IG, “would be appointed to a four-year term after a search panel chosen by the Rules Committee recommended candidates to the City Council. The new IG would have subpoena power. But, all investigative findings would have to be presented to the city's Board of Ethics, which has never taken action against aldermen.“

Alderman Joe Moore (D-49) did not like the new ordinance, because it contained language that there must be “signed and sworn complaints” for an investigation to proceed. “‘It’s as bad, if not worse than doing nothing,’ Moore said.  ‘There is no investigative agency in the world that needs a sworn complaint. Not the U.S. attorney, not the state's attorney. Not the attorney general. Not the [city's] inspector general. It really prevents any serious investigations from taking place.’”

Then on August 13, 2010, I wrote, “All Of Chicago is a Stage” about how  it was now months since the ordinance had been passed and Alderman Mell (D-33), Chairman of the City Council’s Rules Committee, had not appointed a search committee yet.   Once that panel was in place, the job would have to be advertised, and applicants would have to apply, be interviewed, ratified, etc.  No budget had even been discussed yet. 

Last week, 18 months after the ordinance was passed, Faisal Khan, a York attorney was named to fill the job at a part-time salary of $60,000.  He will have no staff.

Ald. Edward Burke (D-14), chairman of the Finance Committee said that Kahn’s job will be to “to respond to complaints, if there are any, of members of the body or staff of the City Council that might be accused of wrongdoing." (Highlighted section by me)   Since 1972, when the city had no Inspector General investigating City Council, 29 current and former Chicago aldermen have been sentenced to jail.  So I think it is a safe bet to say that there will be complaints!

Re the choice of Khan from all of the applicants, Alderman Mell said that Khan had no ties to Chicago and paraphrased the old political line about Chicago patronage by saying, "This is nobody nobody sent. This guy, nobody knows this guy."

Mell obviously did not do a simple Google search like I did.


I found a Faisal Khan, an assistant district attorney in Queens, who was married on November 4th in New York. His wedding was covered by the NewYork Times. In relating the courtship of Khan and his then girlfriend Sanam Hafeez, the story reported, “He proposed in February at dinner in the Signature Room, a restaurant atop the John Hancock Center in Chicago, where they had been visiting friends.”  Can it be the same Khan who is up for the IG job that Alderman Mell says "nobody knows this guy?"

What friends was he visiting in Chicago if nobody here knows him? 


 Also, according to the  Chicago Tribune, “Khan, who will turn 38 on Friday, went to law school in New York and was licensed as an attorney there in 2002, according to Illinois Registration and Disciplinary Commission records. He was licensed in Illinois in March, the records indicate.”   So for no reason at all, a lawyer who supposedly does not know anyone in Chicago, gets licensed here?  Makes no sense.  

Maybe somebody did send him.